One of the main reasons that I decided to embark on farming was my desire to understand and justify my consumption of meat. I realized I had to make a change a few years back when Jen and I were looking to go on a budget after my fellowship at UW ended. We bought a Costco membership and started buying those huge bulk packages of chicken, pork, and beef. I was initially thrilled at the money we were saving, but then I began to reflect on all the negatives associated with extremely cheap meat. I read Omnivore's Dilemma, watched documentaries such as Food, Inc. , and basically started to feel guilty for eating and buying meat.

Fast forward to today where we're raising our own animals for consumption. I feel at peace with my own attitude toward carnivory, but I think it's a worthwhile endeavor to put my feelings into words. I've been considering working toward "A Carnivore's Ethic" since I started blogging, but a New York Times competition calling for short essays on the topic has pushed the concept to the forefront. I'd like to submit an essay, and I would like your feedback. Here's the gist of my thoughts in raw outline form:

- An ethic is simply a set of moral choices that define right and wrong- The Carnivore's Ethic is an extension of Aldo Leopolds' land ethic: "The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land...[A] land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such."- We choose to raise, kill, and eat animals because we choose to respect animals through the entire process- We choose that it is wrong to kill other humans, but that it is right to kill animals if the above statement is true. - We must seek to raise and slaughter animals in an environment that allows them to be as happy as possible.- Happiness is defined as an absence of suffering.- We are limited to judging the suffering of animals by examining it through our human lens, but we give ourselves permission to do this judging. - For humans to eat animals, it is essential that they are certain that the animals were raised and slaughtered in accordance with this ethic. This implies that we must know our farmers.

In summary, in order for our society to function, we must have a set of ethics. We make a choice that it is ethical to eat animals as long as we are absolutely certain that the animals were raised and slaughtered in an environment that sought to eradicate the suffering of animals.

Let me know what you think of this and I will post a draft of the essay for more feedback.

I think this sounds great. I am curious if you plan to include any of the reasons why eating meat is actually, in some cases, a sustainable, or at least, efficient way of providing nutrition to people. Some land is not arable, but can be used to produce meat, for example...Either way, I think you have a good message, and I am curious if you plan to tell it from your farmer perspective, or for it to read more as a manifesto?

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Jeff

3/24/2012 11:20:52 am

Good question Rachel. The short answer is that while I think issues of sustainability/ecology/ feeding the world are important, I don't think they should be involved in the discussion of whether it is ethical to eat meat. I have lots of thoughts and questions about the sustainability issue, but I'll leave them for another day.

As for the perspective, I'm not sure. I only have 600 words so I need to make every sentence count. If this were to get published, I would want it to help raise awareness for the farm, so I guess I'd slightly favor the farmer's perspective. Any thoughts?

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Rachel

3/28/2012 02:46:45 am

I think your role as a farmer, actively raising and slaughtering your own animals, as well as consuming them, adds a lot to your argument. While the rest of us can discuss the ethics of animal consumption in an abstract way, you are actively participating in the process of meat production, from birth to death to consumption. That is something few meat-eaters can say.